Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller and Cardinal Raymond Burke have rebuked bishops who voted in favour of Church blessings for same-sex unions at a meeting of the German ‘Synodal Way’ on Friday.
In an interviewwith Raymond Arroyo of EWTN, German Cardinal Müller, who served as the Prefect for the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith for half a decade under both Benedict XVI and Francis I, called for disciplinary action to be taken against them.
“They are acting absolutely directly against the Catholic doctrines– against the definition of the dogmas. There must be a trial. They must be sentenced. And they must be removed from their office– unless they convert,” said the cardinal.
The most recent convocation of the Synodal Way in Germany concluded in Frankfurt on the 11 March. The day before proceedings came to a close, on Friday 10March, the German bishops and delegates voted in favour of providing formal ecclesiastical blessings to same-sex relationships.
Only nine of 58 bishops opposed the motion, 11 abstained, while the remaining 38 voted in its favour.
The measure is in direct contradiction to a 2021 confirmation by the Vatican that the Church is neither permitted nor able to, under any circumstances, give liturgical blessings to same-sex unions.
Amidst growing fears of schism, in June 2022 Pope Francis issued a message to German Catholics, reminding them that their bishops do not possess the authority to introduce new theologies or modify church governance.
“Germany has a… Protestant church, but I don’t want another one,” cautioned the Pontiff.
Cardinal Müller expressed his sadness that such a large number of the bishops had explicitly decided to vote against the teachings of the revealed faith including 2,000 years of Christian thinking, the Bible and the Apostolic Tradition.
He described the laymen and women involved in the synodal process and responsible for the resolution as being influenced by LGBT and woke ideology, which he denounced as materialistic and nihilistic.
Müller, who defended Pope Francis after criticisms of heterodoxy after his encyclical Amoris Lætitia, has frequently defended the doctrinal immutability of the Church. He maintains and confirms that the Church is unable to change teaching on sexual ethics. He has been a consistent critic of the German synod.
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